Lewis Hamilton will start his final Formula 1 race for Mercedes in 16th after a bizarre Q1 incident involving a bollard.

Mercedes duo George Russell and Hamilton were 10th and 11th after the first runs in Q1 and needed to improve with less than 0.7s covering the 19 cars that had set a time.

Both cars were close together entering the final sector on their outlaps before Hamilton slowed down entering the penultimate corner to let Liam Lawson go past on a flying lap.

Hamilton then accelerated towards the final corner to prepare his push lap but had to slow down again instantly as Russell and Jack Doohan backed up ahead of him.

Despite the suboptimal preparation, and being fairly close to Doohan’s Alpine through the lap, Hamilton’s first two sectors were two tenths faster than those of Russell, who progressed into Q2 in ninth.

But he was then four tenths slower than Russell in the final sector, which left him a tenth from safety.

The cause was striking a bollard dislodged by Kevin Magnussen trying to get out of Hamilton’s way by cutting the Turn 14 left-hand that ends the sequence of 90-degree corners around the hotel before the final two turns.

That happened right in front of Hamilton who then unknowingly hit the bollard, which got trapped under his Mercedes’ floor.

No luck for Lewis